Excel Parking strikes again

Lone_Ranger_2

First of all as a newbee I would like to say a great big thank you to this site and all it's contributers, without you people I would have just paid up as I, like most others were ignorant to the facts.
A couple of weeks ago my daughter parked in the same car park as she always did to go shopping and put her usual £3.50 into the machine which was the amount for all day parking. On her return some time later she found the dreaded ticket on her windscreen. On inspection I realised that in fact only £3.45 had registed and therefore only allowed 2 hours. As this was obviously a genuine mistake I decided to appeal (ok ok I now know I shouldn't have bothered ) and of course got the usual "no chance" letter. That's when I said to myself "this can't be right" and started surfing for help, thankfully finding this site. Now I obviously have no intention of paying these gangsters (no offence to gangsters of course ) but I'm not sure whether to just completly ignore them from now on, which I think is what many would suggest or to send them the 5p and tell them it is in full payment for any lose they may have incurred even though it may well have been there machine which was at fault. What do you think ?

pogofish

Strictly, sending them the 5p in "full and final settlement" would be the absolutely right thing to do but frankly, they are not going to stop trying it on, so ignore is the more practical option.

give_them_FA

Whose car is it? In other words who will get the letters? Don't think you can go wrong with ignoring. No- wait. Better idea.

Send them a cheque for 5 p, with a covering letter confirming your earlier communication that the amount of parking paid for appears to be 5p short, and you are not going to argue at this stage whether it was the fault of their machine or not. State that it is in full and final settlement of any liability you could be held to have to them, though you do not in fact admit any such liability.

Then send it to them in an envelope, writing "Payment enclosed" along the top of the envelope, BUT DO NOT PUT A STAMP ON IT.

They will have to pay to receive it, and I will wager you will never hear from them again. I didn't when I did this, though to be fair I never really put a cheque in, merely a letter telling them to get stuffed.

trisontana

Excel are on Watchdog next week.

Lone_Ranger_2

give_them_FA wrote: »

Whose car is it? In other words who will get the letters? Don't think you can go wrong with ignoring. No- wait. Better idea.

Send them a cheque for 5 p, with a covering letter confirming your earlier communication that the amount of parking paid for appears to be 5p short, and you are not going to argue at this stage whether it was the fault of their machine or not. State that it is in full and final settlement of any liability you could be held to have to them, though you do not in fact admit any such liability.

Then send it to them in an envelope, writing "Payment enclosed" along the top of the envelope, BUT DO NOT PUT A STAMP ON IT.

They will have to pay to receive it, and I will wager you will never hear from them again. I didn't when I did this, though to be fair I never really put a cheque in, merely a letter telling them to get stuffed.

What a great idea :rotfl:. The car belongs to daughter so she will get the letters.

vax2002

She paid the 5p, the machine was at fault, she owes them not 1 penny and the charge could not be anything but an unlawful penalty.

Stephen_Leak

With some PPCs, you even have to ask whether or not the machine had been deliberately set to do this. Excel may be as morally bankrupt as every other PPC, but at least they're professional.

Ignore. They'll soon realise that they're throwing good money after bad.

In the extremely unlikely event that you do get a letter from HMCS (not one from Excel just mentioning County Court and CCJs) then that would be the time to offer a further (I choose to believe that your daughter did actually put in £3.50) 5p in "full and final settlement".

I can just see a judge had that in one hand, and their "fine" (how much, BTW?) in the other. Part of me almost wishes it does get to court.

notts_phil

trisontana wrote: »

Excel are on Watchdog next week.

Really? I shall have to watch...

Lone_Ranger_2

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

In the extremely unlikely event that you do get a letter from HMCS (not one from Excel just mentioning County Court and CCJs) then that would be the time to offer a further 5p (I choose to believe that your daughter did actually put in £3.50) in "full and final settlement".

Apparently she put £3.50 in but it did include 2x5p pieces so my best guess would be that one of them went straight through and she hasn't noticed that the machine hadn't accepted it.

bondy_lad

you are treating this to serious, you have recieved a FAKE ticket/charge,,= nothing can/will happen to you,, full stop, bin it,,and ignore the nonsense to follow from roxburghe and graham white,, all part of the same scam.

Lone_Ranger_2

Forgot to mention about this, it's great . The letter they sent back rejecting my appeal says, "we assure you that the machines are checked and maintained on a daily basis. We must however reiterate that motorists should always check the ticket as no machinery is reliable at all times." I would love to read that out in court.